A Life Changing Moment

Jeremiah 29:10-12

This is what the LORD says:

"When seventy years are completed for Babylon,

I will come to you and fulfill my good promise

to bring you back to this place.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me,

and I will listen to you.

Did you ever notice that a life changing moment arrives with a whisper that is almost inaudible? In retrospect you think that you should have heard trumpets heralding the moment or at least a digital sound that something was happening. Such a moment occurred in my life in late September of 1965. I was at my first working experience…teaching First Grade in an inner city school in New Haven, Connecticut, having just graduated from college the previous June. One of my co workers at the elementary school was a former college classmate of mine, and she showed up in my classroom late on Friday afternoon to tell me that there was a Mixer at the Yale University Graduate School the following evening. She was going, and she wanted me to go with her.

I had always hated mixers, but for some reason I decided to go. I was kicking myself standing there. It felt like such a meat market to me. I noticed one young man standing there and started to wonder about him. He was not American, but I could not place where he might be from. He was Asian but looked different from all the stereotypes I had in my mind. Some of the possibilities that I considered for his origin included Korea, Japan, Thailand and some others. My guesses were not correct, and I knew it. He just looked different.

He saw me staring at him and walked over. He asked me to dance. He told me he was from Bangladesh. He did not look like your average Asian Indian…and it is my suspicion that there was something in his genetic pool from Myanmar...hence the more Asian look. We danced the night away, but I cannot ever claim it to be love at first sight. At the end of the evening he wrote his name and phone number on a napkin, and I wrote mine. He tore the napkin in half, and we each went home with our own half.

We dated. At one point he had asked me out for something or other, and I told him I was going to a conference. I said I would call him if I was back in time to go out. There was no conference…I wanted to leave my options open. I just did not enjoy being with him. At the end of the day I did not want to go out…and I did not call him. He did not contact me either.

Come the following February….it snowed! I found my half of the napkin in the silverware draw in the dining room. I called him to ask him what he thought of the snow. He asked me out, and I asked myself, “Oh what have you done now?” He had changed over those several months, and I found him fun to be with. We started seeing each other all the time. I fell in love with him, but he kept saying that our cultures were too different for us to marry. He said that it would never work out. He had bought himself a stereo. It was one of those stereos that was in a big piece of furniture that resembled a buffet. He promised to give it to me when he left, and I wondered if it was my consolation prize. I dramatically pictured myself as an Edith Piaf figure of tragedy walking around in a long black dress and singing the kinds of sad torch songs she always sang.

What looked impossible became possible. I could not understand why he thought that I could not adjust or make a life with him. I understand that now. Life and culture in Bangladesh is so very different. Yes, I understand his reasoning. Still when I am in Bangladesh I love it and love my family there. My Bengali family also loves me. In fact, my father-in-law once said that I was the best of all his daughters-in-law. It turns out that, although I am different, I am able to fit in.

God had a plan for us that was not what It seemed it was going to turn out to be. I was suffering and feeling that the whole thing was hopeless. I prayed, but I had basically given up. He was making plans to return in a year or so alone. I have to believe that God had stepped in to orchestrate what I had been praying for.In the end he changed how he felt. My best friend and I married in 1968.

 I have visited Bangladesh many times, and life has been something I never expected. A few years ago my final prayer was answered when my husband, who is by nature a very private person, accepted Jesus as his Lord and savior in front of our entire congregation…an amazing example of God answering prayer.

Oh, by the way, I also got to keep the stereo as well.

©Corinne Mustafa

This 'n That

Quotes for the week

A LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR

Sick Leave


I urgently needed a few days off work, but, I knew the Boss would not allow me to take leave. I thought that maybe if I acted 'Crazy' then he would tell me to take a few days off. So I hung upside-down on the ceiling and made funny noises.



My co-worker (who's blonde) asked me what I was doing. I told her that I was pretending to be a light bulb so that the Boss might think I was 'Crazy' and give me a few days off.



A few minutes later the Boss came into the office and asked, 'What in the WORLD are you doing?' I told him I was a light bulb. He said, 'You are clearly stressed out.' Go home and recuperate for a couple of days.'



I jumped down and walked out of the office...



When my co-worker (the blonde) followed me, the Boss asked her, '..And where do you think you're going?!'



(You're gonna lovethis....)



She said, 'I'm going home, too. I can't work in the dark.

*************************************

THESE REALLY WORK!!
AMAZINGLY SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES:


1. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.


2. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.


3. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.


4. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.


5. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.


6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.


7. IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.


DAILY THOUGHT:
SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES - NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS.



BOOK REVIEW

The Shack
by William P. Young

"Mack" Philips took his three children on a family camping trip while his wife visited her sister. Just as they were about to leave the campsite, the two older kids decided to take a last canoe ride before heading home. As their canoe overturned, and Mack went to help them, his back was turned and the unspeakable happened. Mack's youngest daughter,Missy, was abducted by a known child predator. After a massive search, evidence of Missy showed up at an abandoned cabin. Although they never found her body, everyone knew the worst had happened. For the next four years "a great sadness" fell over Mack and his family, until a note from God showed up in his mailbox. What happens next will move you to a greater understanding of God's unfailing love for us all.

I know that this is a book that was going around about three years ago. However, if you have never read this wonderful story you should do so. God is shown to be exactly...well almost exactly...as we are taught He would be and hope He would be.  "The Shack" is one of the most moving and profound books on the nature of God and our relationship with him that I have ever read.   It is so inspiring, so enlightening. If you want to know the meaning of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in terms that we mere humans can understand - Read this!! It opened my eyes even more! I cannot recommend it enthusiastically enough and believe that the Lord may use it in incredible ways.

I even used The Shack as a Bible Study.

Author Bio

Wm. Paul Young was born a Canadian and raised among a Stone Age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of former New Guinea. He suffered great loss as a child and young adult and now enjoys the "wastefulness of grace" with his family in the Pacific Northwest.

Household Hints

For the Bedroom

* Shoe boxes stored on high shelves are easier to take down if a small finger hole is cut in the front of each box near the bottom.

* Wire coat hangers can easily hold skirts or pants if you use clip-type clothespins along the bottom of the hanger. Very simple for children to use.

* To help children distinguish between their own clothing and that of other children in the family, color-code all hangers with colored tape and assign each child a color. For socks, T-shirts, and underwear, a stitch or two of thread of the same color will do the trick. (Helps you as you sort the laundry, too.)


* To save time making beds, stitch the bottom corners of your bedspread together like a contour sheet, so it fits the mattress. This saves running from one side of the bed to the other to straighten the spread.


* To eliminate opening sheets to see their size, buy each size in a different color.


Shared by Corinne Mustafa

Thoughts on Life in the Womb of God Before Entering Eternity

This poem speaks to the human condition, although we do not think of it in this way. We think of birth only as when we enter this world. We learn and grow and live our days adding all the things that people add in life…families, careers, friends, possessions. We feel love and sorrow, happiness and disappointment, excitement and boredom, fulfillment and loneliness as we move through childhood, becoming adults and on into old age. We gain reputations that are good, but sometimes we fall, too.

We are on a journey that will not end here. We live surrounded by the love of God just as an unborn baby grows enclosed in the womb of its mother protected in her womb and by her love. In this way, after our first birth, we enter another womb where we develop all that we need to survive. I submit that this womb where we live is the womb of God, and He is our parent surrounding us with His protection as we continue to grow. It is in this womb where we prepare for our real birth. Ironically, we call that birth death. What it really is is a passage from death into LIFE.

It is not an easy passage for people, because we do not look at it in this way. We fear the unknown. We don’t want to leave what we see as our life or the people we love. If only we could change our paradigm it would be easier to welcome death as our birth into eternal life where one day we will all be together once again.

Thoughts on Life in the Womb of God
Before Entering Eternity

Did you ever think

We live our lives in a womb

Waiting to be born.

Nine months we do float

In blissful comfort we grow

Waiting to be born.

Suddenly it comes

The day that we enter in

No longer waiting.

We descend to life

Starting the learning process

Again we will wait.

Wait to walk and talk

Learn ABCs and much more

Waiting now for life.

We start to notice

Many wonders of the world

As we wait for life.

Did you ever think

The world is another womb

Where we wait for life.

Earthly womb of God

Surrounded by His great love

As we wait for life.

In His earthly womb

We learn and grow and proceed

Towards our life to be.

Getting what we need

From the womb in which we live

He leads us to life.

We each move onward

Nourishment and learning grows

From His womb He gives.

We all build our lives

Family, work, retirement

Now close to our birth.

A spouse to share with

Kids who come to us and grow

Sharing the same womb.

Now new generations

Grandchildren to follow us

Onward into life.

The womb provides us

A place to show worthiness

So we all prepare.

Summer follows spring

Autumn with all its colors

Getting closer now.

We are slowing down

Feeling the time is coming

When waiting will be done.

Maybe it’s illness

That challenges youthful strength

We can see it now.

We just slip a bit

Things no longer seem to flow

Almost time to go.

Then one day we leave

The womb we’ve been living in

Birthed to eternity.

And waiting at the door

He welcomes us to our home

Waiting no more.

The final birth has come

Out of His womb we will go

Birthed, and now gone home.

(c)Corinne Mustafa

How did you develop everything you are?

I once had a friend who came from a very disfunctional family. She grew up with a lot of issues that she had to deal with growing up and in her adult life.  After a lot of false starts and mistakes she found a man who would love her as she deserved. They were married a couple of years later and at her wedding they both made recordings to their mothers.  Her mother had had a jaded past just as my friend had. Her mom suffered from guilt about her choices which had hurt her daughter.  The recording that my friend made to play for her mother at the wedding told her Mom not to have any regrets.  She told her that who she was at that time was the result of all the experiences she had had in life. And who she was at that time was a person involved in a strong ministry to help people who  had endured the same kind of challenges as she had experienced to become healthy in spite of their challenges.  Today I can look around at women's gatherings at my church and see women whose lives are changed by how God used my friend to speak into their lives.

Consider the words on the button above. They are awesome and powerful. God takes us...warts and all...and uses us if we let Him to make a difference. We may continue to revert back, to stumble, and to fall.  My friend has suffered through some of this. Still, in the end, it is all these valley experiences that provide learning and growth that we bring to serve on the road upon which God has placed us.

Written by Corinne Mustafa

Is Fear and Hatred What God Asks of His Christian People

I may be posting an unpopular write here, but I have watched people whose fear for our country lead to unheard of hatred. I have Muslin family here and in Bangladesh who are God loving and God fearing in the way they know God.  I am not here to discuss the things that seem untrue in my paradigm.  I am just hoping that people can lighten up in the fear and hatred department. For the most part the people who are then most hurt by this backlash are not the ones who are actually the enemy.  The enemy is a relatively small but dangerous group of radicals. In the end...in this matter...the ultimate enemy is Satan.  Following is an article that appeared in the Contra Costa Times Newspaper in the Real Life Column that appeared yesterday. One on one we will find that most Muslim people are who they say they are...people of peace.

Corinne Mustafa

Real Life: Inspired by the Muslims I have have met

By Ria Tanz Kubota

Contra Costa Times Contributor

Posted: 09/11/2010 12:00:00 AM PDT

Growing up in South St. Louis where anyone who wasn't German Catholic was British Protestant, I longed to meet other people from other cultures.

 

Rudolph Valentino was my Hollywood ideal. He was handsome, romantic and swept women off their feet with his galloping white stallion, his tent filled with luxurious rugs in such contrast to the swirling sand around him, but even then I vaguely knew it was odd to have a man who appeared Latin play an Arab character.

After I grew up, I was fortunate enough to move to California, home to immigrants from all over the world. As a registered nurse and licensed therapist I was hired by a large HMO, where I also worked as a volunteer on the company newsletter.

Between that experience and traveling, I always have found it a pleasure to talk to people from other cultures. Using my therapeutic skills, I listened closely, asked questions and learned. When so many became so upset with Muslim people, I was surprised because of the Muslims I have met.

For example, I remember interviewing an immigrant from India I'd assumed was a Hindu, whose eyes shined with delight as he spoke about the week in which "we all give to the poor -- anything we can!" His remarkable thinness made his joy at sacrifice even more of a surprise to me than the fact he was a Muslim.

Then there was the doctor who had a reputation for his caring and tireless service to our patients. "Fear of what my maker will see when I die about what I've done for my fellow man keeps me honest." He described how his being Muslim affects every moment of his life and gleefully laughed at himself "for being a coward -- not a saint."

I remember hearing a doctor from Sudan, who always wore a long dress and scarf, talk about holding her baby while he died and expressing gratitude that she could ease his suffering. Patient and kind, she chose to hope rather than grieve. As a woman both "Native" and "Arab" back home, she felt she had been able to ease tensions between the cultures in her native country, and hoped to accomplish the same here in the Bay Area.

A Yemeni couple, who were obviously very much in love and raising two children, destroyed several stereotypes. Her jeans and sweatshirt -- no scarf -- surprised me, but not as much as his frequent deference to his wife. When I mentioned this, she laughed. "Women are the center of the home! What could be more important? Yemen is pretty feminist." He beamed proudly at her. They did conflict resolution easily.

A Palestinian restaurant owner talked about Israelis and Palestinians (who are predominantly Muslim) and said, "We're alike! We look alike, we celebrate alike, we eat alike. Why would I fight my own cousin?" He described how violence grows. Despite missing Israel, he enjoyed living in peace and loved finding similarities in African-American culture here.

 

The Iranian convenience store owner told me of his hopes to help neighborhood kids grow up well. He set limits for his own sons and he would call the parents or caretakers of kids who tried to shoplift from his store. He had them clean his parking lot to make public restitution and to teach them that actions have consequences. He chatted with neighborhood men and women to create community.

 

Another memorable conversation was with the nurse from Iran who worked with closely with a group of women who had lost their first country and witnessed -- if not experienced -- unbelievable atrocities. She helped them build their self-esteem by encouraging them to remember Rumi, the poet, and other Persian contributions to history instead.

 

When I was young, I knew I wanted to know more about the world. But I never imagine my move here would make my life so rich. I'm grateful to the Bay Area and my work which has allowed me to meet so many cultures, so many spiritual beliefs, and to be inspired by these Muslims.

 

Ria Tanz Kubota lives in El Sobrante.

This my daughter Aleishain Bangladesh

with many of my family there. They are good people who do not condone terrorism and are a representative of the people who are in our country who just want what all Americans want.

(Aleisha is in the center with the teal scarf and the big smile.)

REAL LIFE

Reader-written "Real Life" submissions should be between 450 to 700 words and can be sent to lwrenn@bayareanewsgroup.com. Please include the words "Real Life" in the subject line and your name, city and a phone number.

This and That for 9/5 ~ 9/12

Three quotes for the week of September 6-12

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

Marie Curie

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.

Aim at earth and you get neither.

C. S. Lewis

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen:

not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

C. S. Lewis

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HOUSEHOLD HINTS

Clean a Vase

To remove those tough stains from the bottom of a glass vace, just fill with water and add two Alka-Seltzer tablets.

Cleaner Microwave

Dissolve two Tbs. baking soda in one cup water in a small microwave-safe bowl. Let the solution boil in the microwave for a few minutes so that the steam condenses on the walls. Then wipe clean with a damp sponge.Always put something like a toothpick or a straw in the water that you're boiling in the microwave. Otherwise, it could explode when you take it out and give you a bad burn, because it actually reaches a point beyond boiling.

Clogged Drain

You can use store-brand denture cleaning tablets for years to clean vases. The tablets also work great to remove that icky grease build-up from kitchen drains. Just drop a couple denture cleaning tablets down the kitchen drain, along with a cup of hot water." Works like a charm!

Here is yet another tip. If your drain is clogged with grease, pour one cup of salt and one cup of baking soda into the drain followed by a kettle of boiling water. This should do the trick!

Coffee Pot Stains

The best way to clean a burnt coffee pot is to put baking soda in the pot and put the pot back on the burner until the burnt coffee dissolves, then rinse with hot water."

Pots and Pans Stains

Cascade automatic dish detergent is terrific for removing baked on stains from bake-ware, and pots and pans, teakettles, etc. Make a paste of Cascade and a bit of water. Paint on a thin coat with a pastry brush, let it sit for awhile and rinse off. Make sure that it's rinsed thoroughly. For really hard baked-on food, wrap the pan in saran wrap tightly and let sit overnight. Rinse thoroughly and dry. It works on stainless, glass, porcelain and ceramic.

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LET'S LAUGH

We've come a long way baby!

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SOME MORE LAUGHS

Satan-In-Law

One bright, beautiful Sunday morning, everyone in the tiny Midwest town got up early and went to the local church. Before the services started, the townspeople were sitting in their pews. Suddenly, Satan appeared at the front of the church. Everyone started screaming and running for the entrance, trampling each other in a frantic effort to get away from an evil incarnate.

Soon everyone was evacuated from the church, except for one elderly gentleman who sat calmly in his pew, not moving.....seemingly oblivious to the fact that God's ultimate enemy was in his presence. Now this confused and irritated the Devil a bit, so he walkedup to the man and said, "Don't you know who I am?" "Yep, sure do," the elderly man said.

Satan asked, "Aren't you afraid of me?" This time the man said, "Nope, sure ain't!" Satan, a little more perturbed at this, asked, "Why aren't you afraid of me?" The man calmly replied, "Been married to your sister for 56 years."

~~~~~~~~~~~

A Rare Book

A collector of rare books ran into an acquaintance who told him he had just thrown away an old Biblethat he found in a dusty, old box. He happened to mention that Guten-somebody-or-other had printed it.

"Not Gutenberg?" gasped the collector.

"Yes, that was it!"

"You idiot! You've thrown away one of the first books ever printed. A copy recently sold at auction for half a million dollars!"

"Oh, I don't think this book would have been worth anything close to that much," replied the man. "It was scribbled all over in the margins by some guy named Martin Luther."

Author is Unknown...LOL

Shared by Corinne Mustafa

Boiling and Wisdom

This story went around on the internet several years ago...
I think it provides great food for thought.

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen.

She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.



Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

 Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee.  The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked. "What's the point, mother?" Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity -boiling water- but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. " When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, breakup, financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level? How do                                                      you handle adversity?

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?

Living Beyond Yourself

This is a long write for which I apologize but it touches on the pulls of Women's schedules in the many seasons of our lives.


I think young women will appreciate it that they are not alone in feeling overwhelmed and that in the end you find out that it is the Father leading us through these challenges of living our womanhood bringing us peace in what we do. Those of us who are in a later season of our life will see that this is what a committed and Godly woman does in her life. In reality it is something to be proud of.



Living Beyond Yourself

 

Did you ever have a time in your life when you felt that you were on maximum input and could not handle another thing? It can be funny on retrospect, but it is not funny when it is actually happening. We all have had those times when, for instance, all three of the children have soccer practice at the same time across town from each other. It is an even more harrowing experience when your car is in the shop, and you are sharing the other car with your husband who needs to be picked up on yet another side of town so that he can attend a work related dinner just as the practices end.

There was the time when I was running a thriving day care and car pooling all over the Bay Area. Taking some of my children to achool and then moving on to the battered women's shelter to pick up my little charges or driving my oldest with the car filled to the third seat to their Hayward high school were only a couple of my typical daily challenges. I still have a magnet on my refrigerator that says, “Is there life after carpool?”



During that same era I managed to fulfill the role of Den Mother for Cub Scouts, served as the president of the PTG for three years, and attend to the needs of the an elementary youth group as their Coordinator. Add to this taking the children to their music or dance lessons, swimming lessons, and to any other activity they cooked up as being “cool, Mom!” We had their munchkin friends over on a regular basis with all that went with that kind of happening.

In addition to all of that I had a life as well. I sang in the church choir, did crafts and attended a stitchery group, and “played” with my own friends. Oh, and I must not forget my jobs as a wife, hostess, and daughter. My years as the “in between generation” caring for aging parents when they were living in my home is a necessity to remember. In the whirlwind that I lived, and I am not saying my life was any different from any other red blooded American woman of the late twentieth century, I was happy. I worshipped God and felt His blessings. In fact, I seemed to thrive on the cyclone that was my life. I could multi task along with the best of them as my life careened towards the adulthood of my children and my own “golden years of freedom.”



Yes, I was indeed “living beyond myself.” Without the grace of God in my life I would have become immobilized in that harrowing tension filled but happy labyrinth I was negotiating on a daily basis. I always dreamed of and thought I knew I would have days of calm when the awesome and sometimes overwhelming responsibilities of younger womanhood were removed, and I was free to make choices based on just my husband’s and my own needs. What on earth was I thinking of?



This brings me back to my original question about feelings of having maximum input and not being able to handle another thing. While things ARE different the multitude of tasks that pull on me are still there. Nothing seems to have changed. I am beginning to think it is a case of Murphy’s Law. My involvements and duties seem to be expanding to fill the emptiness of time that I had expected would be the gift of these years. What could of or should have been a time of relaxation and freedom from excessive responsibilities seems to have become more of the same. The fact that I am older and enjoying less energy than I used to have makes the daily skateboard ride difficult at times. Sometimes my life has felt as though even God could not help me dig my way out.



Then one more activity presented itself to me. It came in the midst of my working on a myriad of health issues. I was attempting to understand and take control of some serious issues. This required going to many doctor’s appointments and classes as well as doing research about my possible choices. The input and the output concerning my health concerns was tremendous. The car issue has not changed either. My son needed to use my car, and we had been a one car couple for about three months. More stress! In addition there were many family issues that suck the joy and life out of a parent.



You are probably wondering when I am going to get off this detour to reveal the new activity. This was one addition to my weekly schedule that I knew I must make time for. It is a Bible Study entitled “Living Beyond Yourself.” Am I “living beyond myself” I wondered? I silently joked in my mind about the name of the topic. I would be happy to just be “living beside myself” was my cynical self talk. I sardonically pointed out to myself that I am, in fact, “living behind myself.” What does a child do when she falls behind? She runs to catch up. She stumbles and gets tired. She finally sits down and refuses or is unable to move. She remains behind crying with frustration. Inside I was that paralyzed child.



I might have been thinking that not even God could help me. Wrong! Have you ever noticed that our Father God shows up at just the right time, at the time of maximum input in our lives. He adds the additional input which becomes an intervention with greatest relevance to our lives. We have built the issues of our life into giants that crowd our minds just like twenty five college students sardined into a Volkswagen Bug would crowd the driver of the car. It stunts our ability to think or perform. The input of the Father is just the right medicine (speaking of health issues) that brings the giants down to their proper size, midgets relatively, and into control. I love it when that happens. His input is not the straw that broke the camels back or that pushes out the window of that overcrowded Volkswagen.



He speaks into our lives and through His words things start to fall into perspective. Suddenly you have courage and stamina to face health issues or family drama. This is what is happening to me as I am beginning my study of “Living Beyond” myself. The facts and ideas being presented by God, the study plan, and my current co passengers on this road to Him are not entirely new, but the paradigm is. Somewhere along the way I had really taken a detour from the path I had been divinely predestined to travel. I had lost sight of the fact that I am royalty, adopted through Abraham’s belief in the promise that God had given to him about his seed. That seed is Jesus and even me because of my adoption when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. What a wondrous understanding this it! Oh, I had understood it from the beginning, but along the way I has lost track of my own awe of this miracle of love I had received. The sad result was that I had become overwhelmed with my own life and stuff.



There is an old hymn that says, “Only believe. Only believe. All things are possible if you believe.” To believe is to have faith, but faith needs to be put into action in a persons inner thought and prayer life. That is when all things are possible. Mountains of worry, concern and over extendedness can be brought down to mole hills in the process.


This is where this new intervention from my Father is saving his child from despair. I am seeing my spiritual childhood as the child of the Almighty God with new understanding. The pain and trials I have been going through reflect God who holds me in the palm of His hand. Whatever I am going through at any given time that threatens to paralyze me has also been suffered by my Father. I deal with health problems. He also knows the pain and suffering of sickness and death because of Jesus. He has endured disobedience, disrespect, and disappointment in my behavior and choices that I have also experienced in dealing with my own family issues.


Jesus died on the cross so and now lives in heaven. Because of Him my final destination will be heaven for eternity. His path was to follow the will of His Father. My path to heaven must be to follow my Father’s will even though the route is filled with trials to be endured and errors to be corrected. It has only been a week since I started my Bible study, and already His intervention has brought around a new paradigm as I look at my overly stimulated life. His wonderful intervention at just the right time is enabling me to embrace the scripture found in Galatians 2:20 where Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” There is also comfort in the Word found in James 1:2 that says, “Consider it pure joy , my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” That is a mighty ideal, not an easy one, but one filled with hope and encouragement.



The underlying promise from God that I read in all of this is that my pain is not without reward. I also realize that whenever I get bogged down in my own stuff along will come the Great Psychologist with a new intervention that will shake me out of myself. There used to be a t-shirt that said, “Livermore is not the end of the earth, but you can see if from here.” Well my God will step in with new input that will boost me up to a new level, a higher branch, where, even though I am not yet perfectly mature or completely wise I will be able to see the goal from there.

Living

Living “beyond” myself

An interesting thought

Still trying to discover myself

Living “behind” myself actually

Trying, scrambling to catch up

A miracle approaches

And my Abbah, Daddy comes to me

Shows me more than I had seen

Gives fresh ways to look at things

Lifts me up and together we soar

To perch on a higher branch

Closer to the sky.

Closer to HIM

Almost there.

Moving on!

Corinne Mustafa